The Two Pieces
by Tara.B Amy
Summary: YxYY For Yugi discovering being the lighter side to some dark creature is no reason to be happy. What if he fights for having his own life rather than one shared with someone else?


**The Two Pieces**

**by Tara.B Amy**

_Chapter One: Fugitive_

Ahem... I don't know what to say. I'm sorry that I have been gone for so long. I just finished school and had to work like Seto Kaiba to manage my grades. (sighs) I'm so relieved that it's over now. Off to university I am. Sometimes I think it only ever gets more difficult.

Summary: YxYY; For Yugi discovering being the lighter side to some dark creature is no reason to be happy. What if he fights for having his own life rather than one shared with someone else?

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Enjoy!

---

What was it about special people that made them noticed and stand out like black sheep among white ones? It wasn't as if that one person was so very different from all the others on the outside, the boy really just wore average clothes, a sweater and jeans, he didn't even drink something out of the ordinary, there was a cup of coffee standing on his table. He seemed to be like any other person in the cafeteria, enjoying the warm wind outside and relaxing, having a talk with a friend, but still there was something off. Everything about him screamed that he was not what he tried to appear to be. Said friend was hardly the same. On the outside he may have been, but there was something about him making him absolutely average compared to the other one, just a normal teenager.

Yugi kept looking at the two persons at the table a few rows away from him, wondering what it was that had caught his attention like that. Even to him – he liked to observe people after all – the reason was unknown. It made him frown. It was highly unusual that something like that occurred.

He had just come from school and had decided to stop here to avoid the work in the game shop like he often did and he knew most of the people already from seeing them around. It was fun to find out what they were doing and where they came from. Most of them spent their lunch time here and worked opposite the cafeteria in a bureau building. The bags were trademarks of the corporation owning the building, having the Kaiba Corp. logo on them. It had triggered something in his mind as he for once did _not_ know why a person was sitting here. He wanted to find out.

Though he was very attentive what happened next came unexpected to him. If the boy had felt his intent stare or if he just had caught it by chance he didn't know, but suddenly, as if having tracked him down with some invisible power, the eyes of the strange person shifted to him. They didn't wander around to find him after some time of looking around, no, they seemed to know exactly where to look for him. Remarkable red eyes, electrifying him with a steady and solemn gaze. There was a secret behind those eyes, carefully guarded, yet did they show that it was there. It was an eerie aloofness, bordering to arrogance, lying in the eyes which challenged his curiosity to come over and ask for it.

The lips of the boy curved up into a smirk and they moved to speak, the words directed at the other person at his table, but the eyes not wavering from him one bit. They shone with curiosity and something like impatient expectation, which Yugi couldn't place or even define. Their eyes seemed to be locked for a moment there, the gaze unbreakable, and a knowing and sort of triumphal glint sparkled up in the stranger's red depths. Yugi blushed, adverting his eyes quickly. He had been very impolite, he knew, staring like that, and he regretted it instantly. He fixed his gaze to the cup of cacao standing before him, still feeling the tingling sensation of those red eyes on him. He was terrible aware of them wandering over his body and soul and every insides. Was the boy paying him back for his staring and giving him a taste of the same now? He shifted uncomfortably. Maybe it was better to go now and forget what had happened. His grandfather would be waiting for him, too.

He looked around for a waiter or a waitress so he could pay for the cacao, but no one was around right now. He took his schoolbag impatiently and took out the money he needed. Again he looked around and there still was no one. Out of the corners of his eyes he watched the boy at the other table. His eyes were still locked on him, but now he was frowning. Yugi watched his every gesture, the shifting to the side, of his feet. The intention was clear to him at once. Obviously he had seen he wanted to go, so he contemplated to come over. But why? Why would he ever do that?

Panicking Yugi shot up from his seat even though he knew how useless it was. Hurrying would only cause the same reaction on the other side and if the strange boy really wanted something from him he would be careful to be faster. Contrary to that knowledge Yugi searched for a waiter frantically and, as he spotted one, immediately waved him over. He felt there was a reason to run away from here, disguising itself as something perfectly normal. And it sat a few meters away in the form of a red-eyed boy drinking coffee with a friend. If he couldn't evade this boy's grasp he would have to bear the consequences, whichever those were.

Secretly he kept watching the stranger while giving the waiter the money. The boy had leant back in his chair, but his posture wasn't relaxed. The frown had vanished and the smirk was back on his lips. He was waiting for his moment to come, for the moment the waiter turned and he was alone. Yugi shuddered.

"Did you know the president of Kaiba Corporation sometimes comes here to eat?" the waiter asked, sitting down at his table. Yugi saw that the stranger's face at the other table fell slightly at the sight of him having company and inwardly he cheered. Time seemed to be a valuable gift right now. He needed it to form a plan.

"Yeah." He answered. How good it was that he knew the waiter already. Sometimes he came over to talk when wanting to smoke. "I saw him, but rarely."

The waiter grinned mischievously. "He is here right now." He cocked his head to the right, just the direction Yugi was watching. "It's the first time he has company though and the first time he doesn't wear his coat and instead that weird hat. If I didn't deem it impossible I would say he tries at being incognito. But if he does think nobody would recognise him like that... the hat's just hilarious!"

Further Yugi didn't listen. He wasn't able to. It was really Seto Kaiba sitting at the same table with the strange boy and he hadn't recognised him. This other person had caught his attention so much that he hadn't spared the friend a second glance. Okay, he just saw his back and he would never have expected him not to wear his coat (not to mention that hat... a broad and yellow thing, it really didn't fit in, how could he not have noticed!), but it was a shock to him nonetheless. What was going on today!

His thoughts raced through his head at neckbreak speed, while the waiter kept talking and the only reaction he could provide was the occasional nod of confirmation. Seto Kaiba's appearance in the picture told of the importance of it all, but the urge to know what it was all about was overrode by his fear of being involved. That the other boy had in mind to involve him was as clear as the sky was blue and cloudless today. So he had to get away and avoid it all. But how?

The waiter pressed his cigarette into the ashtray until it stopped glimmering. Then a look out of warm eyes cast at him made Yugi snap out of his thoughts.

"You didn't listen to one word, did you?" he asked, smiling a bit. Yugi sagged in his chair guiltily, but his apology was waved away by a dismissive hand. "It's okay. You seem to be nervous. Is there something up again? Everyone's going crazy today."

"Sato... It's just..." Could he say it? It somehow sounded like he was paranoid or something. "It's nothing. I'm stressed a bit. And I have to really go to the toilet." That was said enough and Sato would know that he needed to flee.

It was his only chance to get away. He had watched the waiter, Sato, make himself ready to get back to work and would use that for his own purpose. Somehow the stranger seemed to wait until he was alone and if he wasn't... well, then he would let him alone surely, right?

"Okay, then let's go." The waiter looked at him with knowing eyes and got to his feet. So did he, taking his schoolbag and keeping the stranger under watch all the time. He tried to evaluate his facial expression as he went in with Sato together, but the face was unmoved like a mask now. Inwardly shrugging he waved his goodbye to the waiter and made his way over to the toilets and only after closing the door behind him he let the haste he felt show in his actions.

He quickly went over to the window and opened it, climbing onto the ledge in one swift movement. The stranger could wait at the entrance as long as he wanted. He would be long gone the moment he realised he wouldn't come back out.

He grinned victoriously as he sauntered off through the little garden and onto the street behind the bushes. In this game he had the advantage of being at home and knowing all the ways. He knew how to avoid coming near the cafeteria and he knew how to vanish in an instant in this area. After all it was he who had had to learn how to go out of the bullies' way a long time ago and now he felt a vague déjà vu at going this way through the bushes again. He had done it back then when gangs had spotted him sitting at the cafeteria. Sato had known about the bullies harassing him and had helped him out by telling him how to get away. He had every reason to be thankful. He had been able to avoid every nasty confrontation at this place since then.

Relieved and at ease now he chose a safe way home and, shifting his backpack so it was comfortable on his shoulders, went down the street.

---

As he arrived home Yugi almost regretted having left in a panic like that. What had made him so strongly overreact? It was true, he had felt some danger, but now it seemed all unrealistic. How could one feel panic when nothing was really all that wrong? There had just been this teenager like an alien in a human shell and Seto Kaiba disguising himself with a totally weird (and yellow!) hat... partly it seemed comical, but somehow he hadn't felt like laughing at all. But could it have been that bad? He shuddered again and decided he had done the right thing.

"Yugi?" his grandpa appeared in the doorway to the shop. Obviously he had been waiting and looking for him. "You're late again."

The old man almost pouted and Yugi smiled apologetically. "Sorry, grandpa."

"At least you could help me now." Sugoroku hobbled in happily and Yugi followed. "I'm quite tired, you know, and will go in now to take a nap. Just look after the shop for a while, okay?"

"Alright..." Yugi sighed. He had known that would happen. His grandfather left the shop through the door leading directly to their flat and vanished, humming a cheery tune.

Yugi went behind the counter and watched as a young boy came in, the bell over the door ringing. He knew the kid. His parents really had to be rich for all the money he had spent here already.

"Hey, Yugi! I want some cards." The raven haired boy smiled happily.

"Hello." Yugi returned the smile. "Let me guess... you want to improve your trap cards."

"How did you know again...?" The boy looked up at him in awe. "Right, I want some good traps."

Grinning knowingly (the boy had got almost his whole deck from him and he remembered every single card he had sold him, since he had helped him choose them so that they matched with the others he possessed.) he led the boy to the shelf containing the cards securely behind glass. He turned the key in the lock and opened up the shelf.

"Just look around and choose." Yugi offered. "I'll help you again if you like."

"Yay!" The boy squealed in joy and pondered over the cards displayed before him. The deck he had didn't need much improvement anymore. The cards were quite impressive already and at the bright smile the boy wore Yugi saw that it worked well for him.

Just as the boy was about to ask for a particular card the bell over the door rang again and the door swung open. With a smile Yugi turned around to greet the new customer, but the smile froze on his lips immediately, his eyes widening in shock and his heart skipping a beat as if daring to stop beating completely, then starting to beat frantically as if making up for the short lack of pounded blood.

The ones entering were no other than Seto Kaiba (plus yellow head) and the stranger with the red eyes. And those eyes immediately locked onto his, freezing him to the spot with the intensity of some raw emotion being sent over the short distance directly into his head, making him feel dizzy.

He wouldn't have been able to think clearly, he knew, hadn't it been for the raven haired boy behind him to speak up.

"Seto, brother!" he called in surprise and happiness, running past Yugi, but then stopping in his tracks. "Er... what is this... thing on your head...?"

Evidently it wasn't common that Seto Kaiba wore a broad yellow hat, not even at home, far away from the public and the press.

"Mokuba?" Kaiba glared darkly. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home?"

"But brother..."

It was the fact that the boy having bought so many of their cards was the little brother of the president of Kaiba Corporation that made Yugi snap out of his transfixed state. He turned on the spot and fled into the flat, closing and locking the door behind him. Breathing heavily he leant his forehead against the wooden door, staring into space tensely. He was aware of the shop being unattended and that those people could as well steal the whole money now, but he had no intention of going back now. Not with this... creature outside. He had felt it there stronger than at the cafeteria. A pull. A stirring. Something not entirely human. It was terror he now felt, a fear to be caught and... just fear. He couldn't describe it. Whatever it was, he didn't want it!

A knock at the door he was leaning against made him jump and his breath hitch. He stumbled backwards a few steps and stared at it nervously with wide, fearful eyes. His heart was pounding so fast and hard against his chest that he thought it might explode any second. But the door didn't open. And how could it have?

"Yugi?" A voice drifted over to him muffled by the wood between them. "Open up, please, will you? I can feel you're still there, light."

Shaking Yugi bit his lower lip, thinking of what to do next. Going through the shop was no option anymore. But what was he to do now?

He turned on his heel and ran upstairs to look for his grandfather. He had to tell him... Halfway to his room he changed his mind though, rather turning into the direction of his own room. There was no time to tell his grandpa. He took out some paper and scribbled a note onto it hastily.

"I'm at a friends' for a bit. See you later. Yugi" 

He ran back downstairs and put it into the kitchen so his grandfather would find it easily... or whoever broke into the flat to find him. Then he left the house through the backdoor, running as fast as he could through the wild grass and down a path specked with blooming dandelions and clover, shining in colourful yellow and mauve in the sea of green. This path couldn't be seen from the streets, he knew that much, but he felt haunted anyway. His fear was sitting in his neck, having clawed itself into his very flesh and not letting go. Whatever Kaiba and the stranger wanted, it would change everything. He couldn't risk that while his life was just getting better and he was close to befriending some people from his school. His life was not a very stable kind of good yet and he feared it would just tumble back down to be worse than ever. If he kept away for a while they would surely go and let him alone, right?

Yugi ran up the path to the point where it would end and lead out onto the street, but before he actually came out, he hit something solid and stumbled backwards, falling onto his back.

"A clever light you are, Yugi." The voice was deep and smooth and told of the grace that showed in his movements as the stranger stepped closer to him, smirking. "But the same tactic doesn't work a second time. I checked the surroundings carefully this time."

Yugi scrambled backwards quickly, getting up to his feet. He shook badly in fear and didn't pause to look at the other boy before running back in the direction of his house. There was still an escape route the teenager couldn't know. A path so small and hidden one couldn't even see it when standing closely by. He had found it as a child and had used to play there often. Once his grandpa had been searching for him for hours as he had fallen asleep in his little secret place. He hadn't found him until Yugi had come back to the house himself.

That was his destination. Yugi looked over his shoulder quickly, but the stranger was not in sight. Feeling a bit of relief he tried to soothe his wildly pounding heart and ducked to run through the thorny rose-bushes, where his save haven was. He fell to his knees and crawled into the hole that couldn't be seen behind the roses and slumped down on the mid of the path. He was tired and in shock and confused more than ever. If he rested here, where not even the neighbours who the house belonged to knew of, so how would the red-eyed boy find him? He pulled his legs close to his body and exhaled deeply to even his breathing. He had to get the panic out of his system.

If he crawled further through the hole he would get out at the other side of the house. There he would have to get through another few rose bushes and then he would be on a long street again. How could anyone consider that street? Nobody could reach it (who didn't know his little secret path) from the way he had run so there had to be some hope. There was the chance to get away after all.

The little cuts from the thorns of the roses he had run through blindly started to burn a bit, but he ignored the pain stubbornly. It was time he went on before the boy or Kaiba got the idea he could have got away somehow. He crawled to the end of the hole and shoved his way through the rose bushes again, this time more carefully as to not hurt himself more.

He felt more secure now that the street was empty and his head clearer than a minute before. He would go someplace full of people. You were usually safe among people, so that could prove to be a new tactic the other wouldn't be able to follow at once. Whatever he wanted, he wanted to talk to him alone about it – or do something to him. He needed company to avoid that.

Slowly he walked down the street, careful this time not to let the panic get to him. The shopping centre wasn't far away, just down the street and...

"Yugi."

Something warm closed around his wrist, applying light pressure to his skin and bone. He cried out in shock, shrinking back, but was stopped by the grip on his arm. He tried to break it, but all his efforts were in vain. He pulled and shoved and clawed at the hand encircling his wrist, but to no avail. The grip was as steady as the posture of the boy, who obviously had come up to him from behind and had lost no time in seizing him. Through the haze in Yugi's mind and the heavy fog of terror and fear he still realised that the boy was a fast learner. Whatever he did wrong he made better the next time.

"Keep still, light." The stranger stepped up closer to him, avoiding the foot that was aimed at his shin and the fist shooting out at him easily. Then he reached out and, to Yugi's horror and confusion, lightly touched his cheek with his hand, caressing it with the tips of his fingers. Yugi froze, staring at the other boy wide-eyed.

"You're trembling, little light." That was the first time since he had been caught that Yugi looked up into the handsome face of the stranger. There was a smile on the boy's lips, a stillness about his whole features that was only betrayed by the harsh flicker of emotion in those unusually red eyes. They were so many at once not even having a name that Yugi looked away almost instantly, feeling overwhelmed by the urgency of that display of emotion. They were directed at him, begging him, demanding, asking him and calling out to him. His fear increased. He wanted to get away from this unearthly creature. There was something important, something he had always known existed in him, but he had never known what it was or why it was there – nor wanted to ever do. He only wanted to be normal. He didn't want that kind of feeling in him that made him different, special, seen in every disguise just because it was there, invisible and untouchable. He didn't want to be a black sheep among white ones. It had always been like that and he couldn't hide from it. He shone like a bulb in a dark room wherever he went. Just like the stranger himself.

"Let me go home." He whispered, tugging at his arm slightly. The hand that had caressed his cheek fell to his shoulder, swiftly pulling him forward instead of releasing him the way he wanted against a warm body.

"Yes, we could indeed go back." Those words were breathed into his ear like a pressure had been taken off the stranger somehow. Like the closeness was what his eyes had cried out for a moment ago.

"We?" Yugi struggled to free himself and got away from the other at an arms length. Still the hand was clasped around his wrist firmly and wouldn't let go. "I don't want to be with you, go away and harass someone who wants that kind of attention!"

The smile saddened as did the yearning eyes, but still the hand remained where it was. "At least listen to what I have to say, will you?"

"No!" Anger at the weakness inside of him, which desperately wanted to give in to the soft plea, welled up and surfaced in his rough words. "I don't want to be involved! I don't want to..."

He fell silent. He wanted to express the dark foreshadowing feeling that had invaded his mind since he had first glimpsed at the stranger, but words failed him. How could he explain that he was afraid of losing everything he knew, that he feared to change into something even more strange as he was now and lose the rest of invisibility he had left. The rest of normalcy. Who opens the door to insanity out of free will? Who embraces the demon who came to engulf them, eat them up, make them a part of its hell? The stranger was a demon, unearthly alien even in sweater and jeans, a demon with glowing red eyes that were glued to him like magnets to their opposite pole.

There was a need to keep him near and a fear to do so. A fear to push him away too far and a need to let him come close. The confusion heightened to a dull headache. He just wanted to turn everything back to the state it had been that morning. Blissfully oblivious of the strangeness of himself and that there was a reason for it.

He didn't want to know what reason it was that the stranger wanted to provide. Reasons always brought responsibilities with them. Or else they would not be given freely like that – or pushed into his hands even though he didn't want them. Knowledge sometimes was a burden and Yugi had the bitter feeling that this was one of those times.

"I don't want to change." were the words he finally choked out, his every being shrinking away from the intimidating darkness radiating from the body at his side. Darkness... He looked back up into the red orbs pleadingly. They were swirling with the darkness that possessed the aura surrounding him. Penetrating they were, reaching out for him desperately for something he couldn't describe. It wasn't that kind of darkness someone looks into when light is lacking, but it was just as unreal and untouchable and cold, and even though invisible and not gripped with the natural senses it was there and staining the air like a thick scent that wasn't smelled or tasted, just felt by a sixth sense that was able to see the unworldly signs of a higher force far beyond the human mind.

"Yugi, you can't just..." the stranger tightened his hold on Yugi's wrist seemingly unconsciously. "You can't just send me away like that."

"Just go!" Yugi closed his eyes tightly to shut out the darkness he felt was growing stronger by the second, but it wasn't to be blocked by such a bodily action. His mind felt numb. He felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. What was it that let the darkness strengthen to choke him? Why did the other boy do that to him? His knees started to gave away under him slowly, he saw the ground jumping at him fast. But just as he thought he would collide with the grey pavement something caught him around the shoulders, pulling him back up.

"No." The darkness swirling around them released its hold on him slightly and he took a deep breath of fresh air into his starving lungs as the pressure weakened. He blinked fearfully and looked up into the stony face of the dark creature holding him in an intriguingly soft grip. "I won't let you decide until you know everything."

"What are you... doing to me...?" Yugi asked, his voice sounding small and hoarse. "You... it hurts... me..."

Pain flickered in the red depths of the other's eyes, darkening the colour to a shade of rich crimson. "I can't do anything about it, little light. It's my desperation you feel. My heart aches. I can't help it." The arms around him cradled him to the lean body more securely, giving him warmth and returning to him some of his power. It felt like bathing in a sea of pure energy, making him sigh in bliss and snuggling even closer to the source.

"I want... want to..." Yugi closed his eyes, the wretched beauty that was the stranger's face vanishing from his sight, replaced by visions he felt were foreshadowing again and again where the path he was being carried would lead him to. One soul parted in two halves. One being stuck in two bodies. One dark, the other light. Both living independent of each other but needing a balance desperately. It was only natural that they belonged together like two bizarre pieces that were created to shape a greater meaning. That only they two together could make sense and the single being lost its worth to the full picture.

"I want to be only me."

---

End of Chapter One 

That was it for the first chapter! Yay! I'm so happy to be able to write something again! Work can block you like nothing else, but now that I'm quite relaxed until I have to go to university everything's going to flow better.

I hope you liked that new piece of my imagination. I like the idea that had built up in my mind and I know where it's supposed to go. This chapter also was very long – longer than intended. (grins) You never know exactly before you do it. To my other stories: I'll try to continue them, too. Promised. I'll try.

Aaaaand... I'm currently visiting a great friend of mine in Austria! Sansi! We stumbled over each other here at ffnet and now we're very good friends (winks at Sansi) I'm so happy that Austria is so near Germany, so I went by train! She suggested we both could try writing something together and I'm excited to do that. So if it works fine with us two expect something soon. Maybe it'll be on Sansi's profile so stop by there, too, if you're interested, since I'm not sure what will happen or if it will happen at all.

Hope to see you next chapter!


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